Description of the attraction
The Epiphany Cathedral of the Epiphany Abraham Monastery was built around 1080 by the Monk Abraham. The temple was originally made of wood. The stone was built during the reign of Ivan the Terrible. According to legend, the tsar visited the monastery and took the cane of St. John the Theologian from here on a campaign against Kazan.
After the victory was won, at the expense of the royal treasury, at the behest of Grozny, in 1553 a stone cathedral was built and painted in honor of the Epiphany. The tsar was present at the consecration of the cathedral and presented him with several icons of the Korsun letter (only three have survived to this day: the Dormition of the Mother of God, the Savior on the ubrus, Odigitria). These icons stood on pillars behind the kliros.
But there is another version, according to which the tsar took the baton during the consecration of the cathedral, when Kazan was already taken. With this rod, he went to the conquest of the Astrakhan kingdom. The history of the miraculous cane is reflected in the dedication of the cathedral's chapels. One is dedicated to St. Abraham of Rostov, the other - to John the Theologian, the third - to the patron saint of Tsar Ivan the Terrible - to the prophet John the Baptist, the fourth - to the Entry into the Temple of the Mother of God. The last side-altar was abolished when the Piece-Work Temple was built in the name of this holiday. But not a trace of this temple has survived to this day.
The Epiphany Cathedral of the Avraamiev Monastery in its complicated composition and individual architectural details is somewhat similar to the Cathedral of St. Basil the Blessed in Moscow (they were built almost simultaneously).
The main example of the interior, which the builders of the cathedral were guided by, is the Rostov Assumption Cathedral, dating back to the early 16th century. From it, the Epiphany Cathedral inherited the ratio in height between the apses and the main volume, between the supporting arches of the central drum and the arches of the corner compartments, the design of the drums with cornices, the cross-shaped pillars, the two-tiered arrangement of window openings.
The Monastery Cathedral of the Epiphany contains all the best that was in the Russian architecture of that time. The main volume of the cathedral is cubic in shape and completed with a traditional five domes. Chapel of St. Abraham adorns a slender tent, typical of the 16th century. The side-altar of John the Baptist is crowned with a hill of kokoshniks; above the side-altar of John the Theologian, Rostov masons in the 19th century, imitating the ancient Russian architects, added a belfry. Despite the fact that throughout the entire period of its existence the Epiphany Cathedral was rebuilt more than once (little remained of the previous architecture: the chapters were changed, on which instead of helmets appeared massive scaly bulbs), it is one of the outstanding architectural monuments of the Rostov school of architecture of the 16-17 centuries …
In 1736, the walls of the main volume, the side-chapel of St. Abraham, the porches were painted.
Today the Epiphany Cathedral is in disrepair. The painting of the walls of the porches is practically lost (on one wall of the southern porch there are only fragments of compositions that allow us to understand only the plots, on the western porch it is already impossible to do this). The external paintings of the temple have not survived to our time either. The painting of the chapel of St. Abraham suffered greatly from the weather. Inside the cathedral, the painting also did not survive completely, but the volume of losses is not so great. The painting suffered most seriously in the upper part of the temple. Also, painting on three small domes has not survived; in the northern arm of the cross, part of the vault collapsed, in the castle of the arch between the northern wall and the north-western pillar, part of the bricks fell out. The rest of the damage to the cathedral is numerous cracks in the masonry and plaster layer, paint debris and plaster falls. The largest number of them is on the walls of the altar, apse, on the western wall. In addition, the walls of the Epiphany Cathedral are being destroyed. The brickwork of the supporting arches and vaults was strongly deformed, and in some places collapsed. Conducted in 1960-1970. restoration work was not enough. The cathedral in such conditions is threatened with final destruction.
